Saint of the week: Polycarp (February 23)

St Polycarp (c69-c155), is perhaps the best known of the second generation of Christians. According to his pupil Irenaeus, he had been “instructed by Apostles, and had had familiar intercourse with many who had seen Christ”.

He seems to have been born somewhere in what is now western Turkey, which at that date had become the heart of the Christian world, many Church leaders having fled Jerusalem before its destruction in AD 70.

Probably in Ephesus he became a disciple of St John, the last surviving Apostle. In old age Polycarp loved to recall his memories of John, who, according to Tertullian, had been responsible for his appointment as Bishop of Smyrna, modern Izmir, in the middle of Turkey’s western coastline.

Smyrna was a centre for numerous pagan cults. No doubt, then, the 50 years during which Polycarp served as Bishop of Smyrna threw up many challenges. Irenaeus, however, makes it clear that he was equal to the task.

On the other hand, Polycarp’s Letter to the Philippians begins with a charming disclaimer. “I am as far as anyone else of my sort,” he writes, “from having the wisdom of our blessed and glorious Paul.”

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